My Friend Emma breezes to Albany Stakes victory

My Friend Emma came off of two excellent pace-setting efforts in 1-mile events on the main track at Golden Gate Fields, but that didn’t stunt his sprinter’s speed in the $60,650 first division of Saturday’s Albany Stakes on the turf.

Taking the lead soon after the start of the 5-furlong race, My Friend Emma blazed through fractions of 21.13 seconds and 43.81 while opening a 5-length lead and won by 2¾ lengths in 55.42. That was just 0.17 of a second from the course record set by Vaca City Flyer in 2006.

“He’s a very fast horse that I knew cutting back in distance would be easy for him,” jockey Ricky Gonzalez said. “I let him do his own thing out there.